Boston to host skating worlds in 2016

TD Garden site of event

Share via e-mail

Boston, which never has staged the World Figure Skating Championships, finally will get its chance in 2016 when the annual event will return to the United States for the first time in seven years.

The International Skating Union announced Monday that the global competition, which will involve approximately 160 athletes from 40 countries, will be held March 28-April 3 at TD Garden. Ticket information will be released at a later date.

“This will be a thrilling opportunity for all of us to welcome the world to Boston,” said Joe Blount, president of the Skating Club of Boston, which will co-host with the US Figure Skating Association. “We promise a memorable event both on and off the ice.”

The Worlds, which last were held in the States in 2009 in Los Angeles, will be the third major skating event in the Hub in a four-year span. The World Synchronized Skating Championships were held in April at Boston University’s Agganis Arena. In January, the US championships that will determine the Olympic team for the Winter Games in Sochi also will be held at the Garden.

Boston’s long-established reputation as a skating hotbed made it a favored contender for the 2016 Worlds, as did the event’s geographical cycle. European cities staged three in a row after 2009, London, Ontario, was this year’s site, and Saitama, Japan, and Shanghai will host the next two years.

Coincidentally, the USFSA nominated Boston as its candidate an hour before the bombs exploded near the Boston Marathon finish line on April 15.